Szczesny: ‘At Juventus we play to win, not participate’

Juventus goalkeeper Wojciech Szczęsny was dejected after their elimination from the Europa League: ‘playing here, you compete to win, not to participate.’ The Polish international was Juve’s best player on the night, making a string of superb saves to keep them in the tie, despite it ending 3-2 on aggregate. Speaking with Sky Sport Italia after the match, Szczęsny explained why he would rather have taken a progression to the final than be praised for his performances, and talked about the unity in the dressing room following Juve’s point-penalty earlier this season:

“If I make so many saves it is not a good sign of our performance and the saves I made are useless, it remains a great disappointment.”

“What does a season like this leave? It leaves us without trophies and playing here you compete to win, not to participate, with all the difficulties and the growth of young people it always remains a season without trophies, so not great.”

“On the save on Ocampos? It looks good but it gives me little satisfaction right now, I would have preferred to have played a bad match and qualify to the final.”

“The off-field difficulties? Honestly, in the locker room they did well too, we felt we were waging war against anyone and everyone. Hearing judgments and penalties doesn’t help, we are second right now, a new penalty may come and there is a lot of confusion. To achieve success there is a need for organization, order is good but this is a very strange and particular moment.”